Tag Archives: tribes

Jimmy Nelson captures the last glimpses of dying tribes in Africa, Asia, South America, and Siberia.

The photos are part of Nelson’s series “Before They Pass Away,” a captivating set of photographs that beautifully capture the purity and authenticity of a dying culture.

The homogeneous characteristics of today’s digitalized world compelled him to document a timeless document of these tribes.

“In all this homogeneity, people no longer think that their ethnicity and authenticity is valuable. They think what’s valuable is what they see here,” he said, gesturing to the many indistinguishable laptops that sat on almost every table in the crowded cafe before pointing to his heart, “and not in here.”

Since 2009, the photographer has been traveling through the most remote areas of the world in order to capture the “pure beauty in their goals and family ties, [and] their belief in gods and nature.”

With genuine interest and purpose, Nelson embeds himself in the culture of these tribes without judgement. Whenever I see a project of this kind (one that captures the lives of non-western peoples), I feel as though the westerner capturing and creating a narrative based on what he sees, tends to have an air of superiority. In small ways, the images become these objects of amusement. Nelson, however, is appreciative of these cultures, not because they are exotic, but simply because they carry, through their rituals and social rules, an imminent duty to preserve and nurture their culture and social rituals in ways that are, in fact, absent in Western societies. (via huffpost)